


One Foot In Front Of The Other

by Gothic_Lolita



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Dark, F/F, Female Bucky Barnes, Female Tony Stark, Forced Incest, Genderswap, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Not Steve Friendly, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pedophilia, Rape Aftermath, Rape/Non-con Elements, Red Room (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-14 09:27:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15385776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothic_Lolita/pseuds/Gothic_Lolita
Summary: The Winter Soldier is a weapon. It is not alive. The Winter Soldier is an Asset of HYDRA, to be used to shape the world however its’ owners feel fit.But Jasmine Bronwyn Barnes is not a weapon. She is a scared woman, trapped in her own head. She is a human being, but a caged one. Fighting and clawing to escape her own mind.When the Winter Soldier is forced to oversee the training of young girls called Black Widows, it only sees future weapons to hone to perfection. But Jamie Barnes sees broken young girls being primed to be used just the way she is. And Jamie won’t let anyone else feel her pain.Breaking free of her programming, Jamie runs from HYDRA, taking every single young girl from the Red Room with her. In a world she doesn’t understand and more vulnerable than ever, the odds are not in Jamie’s favour.But then a young woman named Antonia Stark comes barreling into Jamie’s world full speed ahead. Even with an all too familiar last name, Toni proves to have a heart of gold, but skin of iron, and a promise to help Jamie at any costs.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic from Tumblr I'm posting on Tuesdays. Incredibly dark. fem!WinterIron focus with a side of BlackPepper. A large focus on the Red Room girls and all that. A lot of trigger warnings.  
> The title is taken from the song One Foot In Front Of The Other by Emilie Autumn.  
> Ummm what else do I need to warn? Lots of paedophilia, not Steve friendly (but not until later), Howard Stark is a HYDRA agent, all that. It'll make sense, just go with it. Pre-canon, pre-Avengers era.  
> That's honestly all I can think of, lemme know if I forgot anything.

The Asset watched the young girls train, leaning against the far wall. The blonde was going to win. She had a better offensive, and her punches landed every time. The brunette she was fighting had a decent defensive, but it didn’t equate. The Asset tilted its’ head to the side, studying the fight.

“You know, I never did understand why you didn’t make your kid a Black Widow.” One of the HYDRA agents spoke up. He wasn’t speaking to the Asset, no one ever did. “Doesn’t she do ballet?”

There was a chuckle. “Yes. If it were up to me, Antonia would’ve been in the Red Room the day she was born. Only thing she’s good for as a woman, in my opinion. But Maria wanted a daughter more than anything in the world, and I just wanted to keep her out of my hair,” The other agent replied. They were standing off to the side, a few feet away from the Asset.

“You still fooled around with her, right?” The first agent asked with a twisted laugh.

The other agent nodded. “Damn straight. All the way up until she ran away from home when she was seventeen. She was a damned pretty little thing growing up. Porcelain skin and all.”

“Was she as good as the girls?”

“Better. I like it when they cry. She always cried.”

The Asset stared straight ahead. It knew what ‘fooled around’ meant. It knew what the hand shaped bruises on the hips of the little girls in the Red Room meant. The Asset knew what happened when an agent locked the door behind himself as he snuck into one of the girls’ rooms. The Asset knew the scared, skittish look in the girls’ eyes after they’d been fooled around with. The Asset was fooled around with, sometimes. It knew how much it hurt.

The girls on the mat grunted as the fought, and the blonde finally pulled the brunette down into a headlock. She looked up for approval.

The first agent nodded. The blonde snapped the brunette’s neck.

“I’m gonna take care of this.” The first agent said, picking up the small body. “You coming?” There was an edge in his voice, one that clearly innuendos.

The second agent smirked. “Sure thing.” He glanced at the Asset. “Asset, watch over the girls. Give the orders when necessary.” The two walked out with that, already talking about something else.

The Asset nodded and two new girls started to grapple, this time a bit older. Their moves were sharper, cleaner. It was clear they knew what they were doing. The Asset narrowed its’ eyes, watching carefully.

Unlike the younger girls, the two new girls weren’t close. The one with brown skin and quicker reflexes pinned the strawberry blonde down almost instantaneously. She looked up at the Asset with lethal eyes, waiting for confirmation to make the kill.

The Asset opened its’ mouth, ready to say yes. It was the current mission, watch the girls train, give orders when necessary. A simple mission. The Asset didn’t even have to do anything.

But the way the hazel eyes of the pinned down girl burned into the Asset…  the Asset didn’t know what to do.

No. Indecisiveness was not an option. The Asset didn’t have options. It was a simple mission. Simple.

Simple.

The Asset took a deep breath, ready to give a confirmation, when-

When an old memory pressed against the surface, a memory of screaming. The Asset’s own voice, screaming in its’ head. Loud and fierce, deafening. Painful. So awfully painful. Pain was a sensation the Asset felt, but it was not a sensation that was to be registered for anything other than damage report. Pain was irrelevant. Pain was order.

No. Pain was fear. Awful, burning fear eating the Asset alive from the inside out. It was cold and unbearable, it was something that made the Asset want to-

Want. The Asset wasn’t supposed to want. The Asset wasn’t supposed to feel. The Asset was a weapon. The fist of HYDRA. A weapon didn’t feel. A weapon didn’t want.

Then why did the Asset want? Why did the Asset want to tell the girls no? Why did the Asset have its’ own thoughts?

It. Why was the Asset an it to begin with? The Asset had a heart, didn’t it? A body, a brain, blood. It was alive. It had the same body parts as all the girls around her, even if some were grating metal.

The Asset was a girl. Wasn’t she?

She was a female. She was a human. What was her name? Humans had names. The Asset- no, no that wasn’t her name. Not before.

Before what? Before HYDRA? She didn’t know what came before HYDRA. Before the Chair. That had always been irrelevant to a mission. A mission focused on the moment, not on the before.

Did she have a family? She was a person. People had families. They had birthdays and friends, they made their own choices. She had none of that. Not anymore. But she had at one point, hadn’t she? She must’ve. She must’ve.

These girls had names. They didn’t have families, but they had each other, didn’t they? She had seen it. She had seen the quiet laughter they tried to hide, the rules they broke for each other, the hands held tightly together underneath tables where they thought no one saw.

And here they were. Killing each other on command.

For what? So they could be Assets, like her? Sure, they were going to be called ‘Black Widows’ rather than ‘Winter Soldier’s but it was still the same thing, wasn’t it? The same puppets on strings working for the same people who tortured them. Controlled by the same hands that slipped into their rooms late at night to do awful things to their young bodies.

No. No, she couldn’t let that happen. No. She may not know what she was or who she was, but she wouldn’t let innocent girls kill each other.

She looked up at the girls, still staring at her. How long had she been thinking? How long had she gone without thinking? It didn’t matter. Not anymore.

“No,” she said, metal fist clenched so tightly the gears ground together. “No.”

The strawberry blonde first breathed a sigh of relief, but then wore a look of confusion. All of the girls did. They glanced between each other, then back at her. She wondered if anyone had never told them no before.

“We have to go,” she said. The agents would come back. They would come for the girls, and nothing would change. It would be the same vicious cycle for them as it was for her.

She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen.

She opened the door. “Come on. We’re going.”

“Going where?” A little girl asked she remembered the girl’s name to be Kara.

“Away from here,” She answered, shooting the two guards in the hallway without a second thought. There seemed to be a brief moment of hesitation, but then all eighteen girls stood up and followed her. “We’re leaving.”


	2. Chapter 2

Getting the Red Room girls out of the facility was easier than she’d anticipated. The guard count was obscenely low and the ones that were present were poorly trained. She was able to kill every single one without even running out of bullets for one gun.

She led the girls into what looked like a short school bus, but with all black walls and tinted windows. The girls were deathly quiet, but sharing looks of confusion between each other, occasionally glancing at her.

“Are we going on a mission?” A girl with honey skin and brown hair asked. The girl couldn’t have been more than twelve.

“No,” She said, hotwiring the bus. “We’re leaving.”

The girl thought for a moment. “Okay.” The girl took the seat right behind the driver’s seat. The only girl closer to her was the oldest girl with bright red curls and sharp green eyes, leaning against the closed doors, watching the younger girls sit down. “I saw you in a book once,” The little girl with honey skin said.

She looked at the girl and frowned just as the engine started. She turned back forward, starting to drive, trying not to think about what the girl had just said.

The girl didn’t seem to be fazed by her silence. “I was on a mission once. They had a history book about Captain America. You were in the book. It said you were one of the first female Sergeants in American history and that you were his best friend.”

“What?” She whispered, looking at the girl through the rearview mirror. She gripped the steering wheel.

Captain America. Sergeant. The words felt too familiar.

“Yeah,” The little girl kept talking. “Your name is Jasmine Barnes. But everyone called you Jamie. Can I call you Jasmine? I think it’s prettier. My name is Cecelia.”

Sergeant Jasmine Barnes of the 107th.

Jamie. Jamie.

Jamie Barnes.

Her name was Jamie.

Oh.

She was a Sergeant. Well, at least at one point she had been. Captain America. Her friend? No, no his name had been Steve, hadn’t it? She didn’t follow Captain America into the jaws of death. She’d followed a small punk from Brooklyn.

Brooklyn. Was she- was Jamie from Brooklyn?

A small apartment in Brooklyn she and Steve could barely afford from working at the docks-

Oh.

She had a name. She had a life. She was a person.

“Are you alright?” The oldest girl asked Jamie remembered her name to be Natalia.

Jamie snapped her gaze up from the road for a brief moment. “Yes.”

Natalia studied Jamie, arms folded as the drove down the road into a bustling city. The Red Room makeshift facility had been in DC for the time being, right on the outskirts of the busiest parts of the city. Jamie planned to get out of the city and into a more rural area, but for now, she only wanted to lose HYDRA.

Jamie only had one chance to get this right, and she couldn’t afford to fail. This mission had no failure possibility. It couldn’t

Natalia hummed, then ran her hand under the dash, pulling a small tracker off of it before flicking it out the window.

“Thank you,” Jamie said, glancing at her.

“Do you think this is going to work?” Natalia asked, voice careful.

Jamie grit her jaw. “Failure isn’t an option.”

Natalia studied Jamie, then the girls. “For their sake, I hope not.”

 

* * *

 

After about an hour of driving, Jamie found an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. She parked the bus a block away and walked down to the building with the girls following her.

“How long do you plan on staying here?” Natalia asked, walking next to Jamie as she kicked down a boarded-up door.

“A month at most. Most likely no more than a few weeks,” Jamie grunted, hauling broken boards and wood off to the corner of a large, empty room. It was covered in dust, but it would do.

“And how do you plan on taking care of eighteen teenagers, plus you and I?” Natalia asked, helping with the boards as the girls all poured in, running around, playing a bit. They looked more like children than Jamie had ever seen them.

Jamie glanced up. “I’ll figure it out.”

Natalia nodded. “They need sleep. We’ve all been awake for nearly thirty hours.”

“Then round them up. Get them to sleep.” Jamie paused. “You should sleep too.”

“Two people on the lookout is more practical,” Natalia said simply. She pulled one of the other older girls over, relaying the information about getting the girls to sleep. The older girl nodded and walked over to the others. Tomorrow Yelena and I can find enough food for everyone. You should stay with the girls. They like you. Maybe even trust you.”

Jamie stared at Natalia for a long moment. Trust was not something that was so simple in this line of work. The girls were taught that the Winter Soldier- that Jamie, was a weapon. And that they were too. The idea of being trusted by them was one Jamie didn’t know how she felt about.

“Fine.” Jamie swallowed. “Thank you.”

Natalia only nodded.

Jamie watched as the girls curled up on the floor, all of them falling asleep almost as soon as they settled. Just as they’d been trained to do. They were almost… cute. Jamie couldn’t think of the last time she used that word to describe anything.

Just twenty-four hours ago, Jamie would’ve killed any one of those girls without hesitation, or even condoned them killing each other. There were fresh bodies of girls who weren’t saved because Jamie had been too late. Endless bodies. Each girl in the room was there because she was a killer because she’d been better than her peer she’d been forced to face. And the older the girl was, the more hollow the look in her eyes was.

Maybe that was why Natalia had yet to smile once, had yet to do anything other than stare, analyze. She was the oldest, Jamie didn’t know why she was even still in the program. She had no reason to be, she was old enough and skilled enough to be an agent now. Well, a Black Widow, at least.

But it didn’t really matter why. Jamie knew that Natalia was going to be one of her most valuable assets in keeping the other girls safe. Natalia was cold and calculating, but she was also loyal to the girls around her. Jamie didn’t know why Natalia hadn’t done something before.

Jamie supposed some people just needed a catalyst. Something to finally break them after they’d been at the tipping point for so long.

Something to make them human.


	3. Chapter 3

“Pepper, I’m telling you, this is a good idea.” Toni cradled the phone between her ear and shoulder, tapping on the tablet in her hands. 

There was a deep sigh. “Toni. You bought an empty warehouse that doesn’t even have proper working utilities! And you won’t even tell me what you’re going to do with it.”

Toni set down her tablet, grabbing the phone. “It’s called a surprise for a reason. I promise this is going to be great. You just have to trust me every now and then, okay? I know what I’m doing.”

“Hardly.” Pepper deadpanned. “Remind me why I agreed to work for you?”

“Because,” Tony smiled, “you were one of the few people willing to take a risk on working for a fresh outta high school teenager proving she was better than her father at building a fortune five hundred company. And you were right.”

“Because I did all of the heavy lifting,” Pepper finished. “Yes, you’re the fasting grossing self made millionaire in the country, but you’re still a twenty six year old reckless-”

“Pepper, Pep. Come on.” Toni cut her off. “I know. But you’re the twenty three old dynamic PA who’s held this ship together, I know. You deserve at least twelve per cent of the credit for Carbonel Consolidated.”

Pepper scoffed. “Twelve per cent?”

“An argument can be made for fifteen.” Toni adjusted her jacket as the car she was in pulled to a stop. “I have to go. I’ll call you tonight about the PR conference.”

“Toni-”

“Tonight. Before midnight. I promise. Bye.” Toni hung up before Pepper had the chance to yell at her.

Crisis averted. Or delayed, at least.

Toni stepped out of the car, standing in front of the broken down factory. She pulled her tie loose, letting out a sigh. 

In all honesty, Toni didn’t actually have a plan for the building. She’d bought it on a whim. A whim that was in no way influenced by her finding out that Howard had his eye on the building. Of course not. Toni wasn’t that petty.

Oh, who was she kidding.

Toni was petty, and by her own accord, she had the right to be. At least against Howard, anyway. Then again, anyone had the right to be petty against Howard, so that point was irrelevant from a standpoint of purely Toni’s own intentions. 

Building. Focus. Right.

Toni walked towards the building, holding the key she’d been given. Which really seemed void in purpose, all things considered. The entire structure looked two seconds from collapsing. 

Maybe Pepper was right.

But, but. There was something about this building Howard had found worthy of wanting, and Toni had to figure that out or she was going to go insane. Howard was a psychopath sure, but he was still a businessman. There was a method to his madness.

Usually.

Toni took a deep breath, pushing the unhinged door open to step into the building. She had her phone up for a light, considering the boarded up windows were doing little good.

The building was about what Toni had expected, as disappointing as that was. Dark, musky, with a strong scent of dust and regret.

What Toni didn’t expect though, was for something to fly through the air, slice her cheek open, and embed itself into the wall behind her.

Toni spun around, first to see what hit her, then to try to figure out where the hell it came from, and why-

Oh. There was a knife against her throat. Lovely.

Toni put her hands in the air. “Okay, let’s talk about this. I know I’ve got some bad karma, but this feels a little unnecessary. I mean really, whoever hired you-” Toni rambled just long enough to try and establish fake anxiety and fear then she spun around to strike.

With a quick move, Toni flashed her phone light into the general vicinity of where her attacker’s eyes would’ve been, then she grabbed the knife out of the wall, going in for a non lethal lunge, aiming for the arm that was still holding the knife against her neck.

It didn’t go as planned.

A single kick to the backs of Toni’s knees had her tumbling down, then an elbow to her back sent her sprawling down onto the ground. All Toni caught before she went flying was a mass of red curls and a slim figure.

Well, that wasn’t good. 

A foot pressed down on Toni’s throat and she clawed at the ankle, but it didn’t give. Toni looked around, and she vaguely made out a second pair of feet walking towards her and the girl pinning her down.

She was definitely fucked.

“Who is she?” One voice asked in Russian. 

“I don’t know.” The girl directly above Toni responded, speaking in Russian as well. “Where’s Winter?”

There were heavier footsteps, and a third, more robotic voice. “What’s going on?”

“She came in and tried to attack me,” The girl on top of Toni said.

“Okay, I object.” Toni interjected, which the smartest thing, letting them know she understood what they were saying took away the advantage she had. Oh well, it was what it was. “You held a knife to my neck! It classifies as self defence.”

There was a collective pause.

“Get off of her, Natalia,” The robotic voice ordered. The foot on Toni’s neck lifted. Toni sat up, rubbing her neck. A hand reached down and Toni took it, pulling herself to her feet. She flashed her phone light, looking at the woman attached to the voice.

A pair of steel blue eyes stared at Tony, narrowed and framed by dark brown bangs and a pale, sharp face. She wore black body armour that looked specifically designed for her. And she had- was that a metal arm?

Oh, Toni was interested on so many levels.

“Hey sweetheart,” Toni said, giving a sweet and easy smile. “Sorry about that, I’m sure we’re not enemies here.”

The woman narrowed her eyes, shifting a bit. “Who are you?”

“Toni,” She held out her hand. “Toni Stark.”


	4. Chapter 4

Stark. Jamie knew that name. She recognized it as one of the HYDRA agents, specifically one of the ones who partook in sneaking into the girls’ rooms late at night. Jamie had never personally been touched by him, she’d rather heard whispers that he preferred them younger.

Natalia was already raising her knife again, but Jamie put pushed her arm back down. She didn’t drop the glare though.

“Yeah, okay.” Toni nodded. “Leading with the Stark name probably wasn’t the best idea. Listen, I’m just here because I bought the building.” She put her hands in the air, slow and careful. “Rare do I say this, but I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Are you aware that your father works for HYDRA?” A different Red Room girl, one of the older girls with bleach blonde hair, Yelena said. There was a venomous snarl in her voice as if it’d only taken hours for her to turn so harshly on HYDRA.

Not that that was surprising, really.

Toni blinked, and there was genuine confusion on her sharp, striking features. “HYDRA,” she said. “The Nazi death cult from World War Two, HYDRA?”

There was a round of silence.

“Alright.” Toni sighed. “Suppose he is. How would you know? And what are you even doing here? Are you HYDRA too?”

“Not anymore,” Jamie couldn’t quite stop herself from saying.

Toni stared at her with a look Jamie couldn’t quite decipher.

“Okay.” Toni nodded slowly. “Okay, sure. We’ll go with that. But you used to be.” It was a question, but more so phrased as a confused statement.

“Yes.” Natalia groundout.

“Not by our own will,” Yelena hissed under her breath.

“And your father abused us,” Natalia added.

Toni’s face flashed with something akin to horror, but she seemed to suppress it. “Right. And who is ‘us’, exactly? Just you three or…”

As if on cue, light footsteps came towards them, and Cecelia materialized on Jamie’s side. She looked at Toni in the dim lighting of the flashlight on Toni’s phone and stared up at Jamie.

“Who’s that?” She asked, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“How many of them are you?” Toni stared at Cecilia, then back up at Jamie with wide eyes.

“None of your business,” Yelena snapped, pulling out a gun.

Jamie grabbed her wrist. “No,” She ordered before turning back to Toni. “Why would you… why did you buy this building?”

Realistically, Toni could’ve had endless reasons for buying the building. But also realistically, it was a broken down pile of wood waiting to come tumbling down if the wrong nail was pulled out. It hardly even counted as a building anymore, and wouldn’t be worth any money put into it.

“Because I’m a businesswoman.” Toni folded her arms.

A single look from Natalia had Toni letting out a faint groan.

“Look, Howard, my father, he was about to buy this building, out of the blue. So I bought it first.” She wiped a hand over her face. “I’m petty, alright? Who isn’t? I didn’t want him to have whatever it was he wanted in this building.” She paused, then her eyes widened. “Oh my god. He wanted you, didn’t he? All of you, right? You said-”

“We need to leave,” Natalia said, voice sharp. “We need to move, now. If he’s onto us, so is HYDRA.”

Jamie nodded. “Get the other girls.”

“Hey, hey!” Toni put her hands on her hips. “No, nope. You don’t just get to bail on me.”

“Or what?” Yelena demanded. “You’ll turn us back into your father and the rest of HYDRA? Let him get off to young girls handcuffed to their own beds?”

“Let him-” Toni whispered, taking a step back. Her entire demeanour changed almost instantly. She was breathing far too fast, eyes alert and a bit wild. She looked so painfully afraid. Jamie knew that look. “He, oh god, he raped other girls? I thought- fucking hell.” Toni leaned against the wall for support, hands shaking a bit. “I’m so sorry.”

“He raped you too,” Jamie said it, and she didn’t quite mean for it to come out as insensitive as it did. Instead of being a question, a revelation, it was said as though it was a concrete fact.

The look in Toni’s eyes didn’t contradict it though.

“I’m sorry,” Toni whispered. “God, I knew he was fucked up, but I thought… I thought at least it was only me, and nobody else had to… oh god.” She wiped her hands over her face, running her fingers through her dark brown, wavy hair.

Even Yelena seemed to have simmered down a bit, realizing Toni’s state wasn’t one that could’ve been faked. Realizing that she was a victim of HYDRA too, even if indirectly.

Toni took a deep breath, forcing herself to stand up on her own. “Let me help you.”

“What?” Jamie frowned.

“Let. Me. Help. You.” Toni repeated. “My- Howard hurt you. All of you, however many of you there are. Let me help you.” She ran her fingers through her hair again, and the look in her eye changed from afraid to scheming. “He looks down on me, and the last thing he’d expect is that you all were with me. And even if he knew you were with me, he wouldn’t be able to find you.” She took a deep breath. “If anyone’s going to be one step in front of Howard, it’s going to be me.

“And I know you don’t have much to trust me, you barely know anything about me, but I can’t let him get to you. I can’t… I have to make this right.” Toni’s eyes were wide and pleading. A deep brown coloured with a remorseful pain that Jamie found far too captivating, all things considered.

Yelena let out a snort of disgust.

Jamie took a step forward. “If I trust you, and a single one of these girls gets hurt because of you…” she whispered, “I will kill you and your father.”

“Understood.” Toni nodded without hesitation.

Jamie let out a long breath. “Okay.”

Jamie didn’t want Toni’s help, and she badly wished she didn’t need it. But she was fighting an uphill battle, and it wasn’t just her life on the line.

A soldier had to make logical choices. This was logical.

Toni offered a pained smile. “Sounds good.” She clapped her hands, then paused. “Just how many of you are there, exactly?”


	5. Chapter 5

Toni was mildly, faintly, possibly aware of the fact that this just might’ve been a bad idea as soon as she said yes to it. Agreeing to take in young girls and a woman with a metal arm who she knew little to nothing about other than the fact that they worked for fucking HYDRA was not the smartest thing she’d ever done.

But even Toni was willing to admit, this was definitely a bad idea as she watched nineteen girls of varying ages and a woman with a metal arm run around the underground, off the maps part of an apartment building Toni owned. She’d bought the building under a fake name after the previous landlord tried to forcefully evict everyone out of their homes. The underground part was as large as an entire floor of the building and had been used for gambling and other illegal activities, serving as a large bar and game room and all that. It stunk of alcohol and cigars, but it worked, for now.

“I know it’s not the best, but…”  Toni shrugged, walking beside the woman with the metal arm. Jamie, she’d said her name was Jamie. Toni tried not to think about the fact that she looked very much like a different famous Jamie, but that was a can of worms she wasn’t ready to open. Yet. “But I can promise it’s off the grid.”

“It’s fine. Thank you,” Jamie nodded, eyebrows knit together as she watched the girls investigate the room.

“I’ll have some beds and food brought in. Maybe some books too. I think the tv works.” Toni pointed to a tv mounted on the wall.

A little girl ran up to Toni and tugged on her arm. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Toni flashed a small smile to the little girl with a mass of brown hair on her head.

“I’m Cecilia.” The girl wouldn’t stop wiggling and fidgeting. “Here.” She held up a small pocket knife.

Toni looked down at the knife, then looked up at Jamie for an explanation.

Jamie nodded with a ‘go on’ look on her face. Toni shrugged, taking the knife.

“Thank you?”

Cecilia flashed a bright smile and ran away to join the other girls again.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Toni held up the knife with a frown.

“She thinks your her handler,” Jamie said, arms folded.

Toni blinked. “She- what? I- that didn’t answer my question in the slightest.”

Jamie pressed her lips together. “The girls and I are required to arm our handlers in the event we should need to be put down. She thinks you’re her handler, so she armed you.”

“She… oh god.” Toni dropped the knife, taking a step away from it as if it were going to attack her. “That… I don’t even know what to say about that.”

Jamie’s eyebrows twitched together with a fain confusion.

“You feel the same way, don’t you?” Toni arched an eyebrow. “You think that I’m your handler or something.”

“Not… entirely,” Jamie mumbled, staring at the ground. The metal gears in her arm whirred. “It’s a trained response.”

“I see.” Toni managed a nod. “Okay. Okay. I’m gonna… step out.” She pointed towards the door. “I’ll be back later with some food. Try to keep them busy, I guess.”

Jamie nodded tightly. Her posture stiffened as if she meant to take Toni’s words and follow them to a tee. “Wait.”

“What?” Toni glanced over her shoulder, having already turned towards the exit.

Jamie picked up the knife, holding it out to Toni. Toni looked down at the knife, then back up at Jamie.

Oh, fuck it.

Toni took the knife, sliding it into her pocket and she turned back around.

They were definitely going to need to work on that.

Toni tried not to make it look like she was rushing as she stepped out of the room that was already bustling with a shy, but a warm energy of young girls running around and playing. They all seemed on edge, waiting for someone to yell at them or tell them to do something, but also desperately trying to enjoy the moment of fun. It was heartbreaking almost, to watch. Toni tried not to think about it too hard.

She tried not to think about the fact that’d she’d just basically adopted nineteen girls and one very confused adult. Who all probably knew more about murder than being actual human beings.

God, Toni had the worst luck with getting into these sorts of situations, didn’t she? Pepper was right, Toni was a walking disaster waiting to happen.

Speaking of Pepper, Toni pulled out her phone, dialling Pepper’s phone number as she got into her car that was parked in the back of the parking lot at the apartment building. Once again, the car was registered under a fake name, and so were the three other cars she used to get the girls to the building. Thank god the older ones knew how to drive when they weren’t holding weapons to Toni’s neck.

Toni held the phone to her ear, waiting for Pepper to pick up as she started the car.

“Antonia Carbonell, where on earth are you?” Pepper didn’t bother with formalities, though when did she ever? “You missed two board meetings, you haven’t been answering your phone, not for me, not for Rhodey, not even for your mother What the hell do you think-”

“Yeah, I know, I know. I’m an awful friend, an awful daughter and all that.” Toni hummed, pulling out of the parking lot. “That doesn’t matter right now Pep, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“We what? Toni, what does that even-”

“It means you should stop by the house,” Toni said, cutting her off. “Make sure madre is there too. I need to talk to her about something, and it’d help if you were there too.”

“About what?” Pepper demanded.

Toni let out a quiet sigh. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

st how many of you are there, exactly?”


End file.
